If G.W. Bush doesn't care about public opinions...?

Question

George W. Bush said he won't let public opinion sway his decisions. Public opinion determines who becomes leaders in our nation. Should we accept authority and not worry? If so how close is this to dictatorship?

Answer 1

Bush has forgotten the Popular Sovereignty as stated in the Preamble of the Constitution.
Which says that our government has been set up by the people, so that it can be responsive to them and protect their rights. All power to govern comes from the people, who are the highest power.
So I suppose he does consider himself above the Constitution (the Supreme law of our land),,what our great forefather's let us inherit

Answer 2

It isn't. People have never had a say in a President's decisions. To think otherwise is to embrace folly.

First, the president is was elected to lead the country and do what he believes is right. Enough people agreed with his beliefs to elect him the first time and then thought he did a good enough job to reelect him. That means he got an endorsement from the people to continue to lead.

Second, unlike the people, Bush is actually responsible for his decisions. All of America is his concern, and his reelection was a confirmation that people believed he was doing the right thing. Would a president who turned away from what he believed was right based on an opinion poll be worthy of the office? Hell, no. A president who had no faith in his own convictions is not someone who should be in any position of authority.

As for accepting this "authority", the fact is that he was given this authority by the people, and he has been using this authority in a Constitutional manner. No reason to worry.

As for the concept that a President acting in accord with the Constitution is a "dictatorship", that's simply not true, and shows a level of irrational thinking.

Answer 3

Public opinion plays some role in the USA. But it isn't how our country was formed or meant to be run. Our government is officially a constitution-based federal republic with a strong democratic tradition. Which basically means that we elect people to represent us for a set amount of time. But they do not have do everything we want them to do. We merely suggest to them. However if they don't do what we elected them to do they risk not being re-elected. George Bush doesn't really have this problem now since he can't be re-elected anyway. He does however hurt his party by not catering to public opinion.

As far as this being a dictatorship, it is far from it. Bush isn't a king or dictator he has to ok allot of the stuff he wants to do by congress and the house. They have the ability to overturn legislation and so on. They even have to ok sending more troops to Iraq. Congress is more apt to cater to public opinion though because they can be re-elected forever.

Answer 4

There are some good points being made here. I would have agreed with some of the early answerer's that public opinion is everything but after reading on I've come to the realization that most of the public has an opinion on everything but only about half of them vote. I have to go with the vote.

Answer 5

I think people like you miss the entire point we are a representative republic. We send people to Washington to make decisions for us.

Now I am not saying they should never listen to the people but it should be tempered with information that they have to what's is in the best interst of the entire country.

Every good father knows that if he lets his children take a vote in family decisions the vote would be short-sighted and probably a disaster in the long run, that's why every nation needs statesman not politicians because politicians will always take the most popular route not the best.

Answer 6

Public opinions are not always in the best interest of our country. What national security information are you privy to?

We should accept authority and question it as needed but we must also use common sense in realizing that as citizens we don't know everything.

Accepting authority does not equate to dictatorship, rather respect - something many in this country could use a little more of.

Answer 7

It is nowhere near dictatorship. A dictator does not serve two terms then leave. We should accept authority because we granted authority. We should always worry about whoever is in office, whether they are a drunken murderer like Ted why were her panties in the glovebox Kennedy, a rope-a-dope cowboy like Bush, or a lying cripple who desires to replace capitalism with socialism like FDR, or an anti-semite who dresses himself in sheeps clothing like Carter. Voting, not opinion, determines who becomes our leaders.

The mistake Bush made is he failed to listen to Lincoln when he advised that you can please some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time. He alienated his base by compromising with the libs, and he alienated the libs because he has an (R) next to his name.

If you want to look at using loaded words accuratly, words like dictatorship, you should look to the presidency of Lincoln, Jackson, and FDR more than you should look to Bush Jr.

If you had let public opinion guide our nation, rather than decisive leadership, we would have fought a war with England and Russia over the 49th parallel, and never acquired Alaska. Fear of public opinion is why we did not enter ww2 and ww1 earlier, and that lack of courage on the part of the American people is our shame. Public opinion caused us to send jews on boats back to die in ww2, and public opinion never would have led us to abolish slavery, as the majority of Americans thought the emancipation proclamation was an unconstitutional breach of power, and also that slavery was OK.

Leadership is defined by going against the grain.

Answer 8

The Publics Opinion have never chosen our leaders. Our ELECTORALS DO. It is an antique way of voting and we need to rid this country of those electorals, who the HELL are THEY to choose MY VOTE ?? You WASTE time and money voting in America !!!!
No we should not just accept his authority, as if he were GOD ?? HELL NO !! It is a dictatorship RIGHT NOW AS WE SPEAK !! You will have car insurance, you will pay taxes that are ILLEGAL by the way, read the constituion, and the IRS actually jails people who dont pay. Its ILLEGAL and our taxes were voluntary and now they tax us to death, and give our money to Israel instead of using it where it belongs. YOU SHOULD WORRY !
WE must stand up for our RIGHTS and rid this country of unfair laws to the poor, and unfair taxes, and certainly UNFAIR VOTING PRACTICES ,,and IMPEACH unfair presi DENTS ! who are denting and ruining our country !

To be honest though, I think that what he means by that is that he knows the public is to emotional , when he knows hes obligated there now !!

Answer 9

Public opinion does not decide who becomes the leaders of our nation voting does.

Answer 10

Public opinion is not what this country is all about, nor is it what democracy is all about. The public voted for a person to make decisions. They didn't vote for someone to take a poll on every issue. This is absurd. Get over the fact that he won the elections, based on the constitution of the US. With this comes the right to make decisions without having to listen to a fickle and uneducated public.